GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers is keeping some unusual company these days. You'll find the two-time NFL MVP with the Ryan Fitzpatricks and Case Keenums of the NFL quarterback world. The Green Bay Packers star ranks last in the league in completion percentage.
It's true. You'll find Rodgers at the bottom of the list. At 56.1 percent, he’s looking up at the Jets' Fitzpatrick (57.8 percent), the Rams' Keenum (57.9 percent) and every other quarterback who has enough attempts to qualify among the league leaders this season.
"Well it's certainly different for him because he's been at the top of the league in every category since his first start many years ago," said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, whose team comes to Lambeau Field on Sunday.
How much of that is on Rodgers is debatable. Right off the bat, you can look at six dropped passes -- that's how the coaches graded the tape, according to one player -- from Sunday's win over the New York Giants, a game in which Rodgers barely completed 50 percent of his passes (23-of-45).
But every team has drops. Still, the receivers accept their share of the blame -- not just for dropped passes.
"We have a job to do of creating separation and getting open," said Jordy Nelson, who had two drops in what he called an "embarrassing" performance against the Giants. "So we try to make it as easy as possible on Aaron, I'm sure he does the same for us. Sometimes we've got to make plays, and sometimes we've just got to make the easy play. So, it's all part of it, just being in rhythm and timing and everyone doing their job gets that accomplished."
The so-called separation problem started last season, when Nelson was out all year because of a knee injury and receivers struggled to win one-on-one matchups. Rodgers' completion percentage experienced a sharp decline in 2015 to his lowest mark (60.7) since he became a starter in 2008. In his first seven seasons, he completed 65.9 percent of his throws, including a career-best 68.3 percent in the first of his two MVP seasons in 2011.
"Completion percentage is really a complexion of all your components in your passing game," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "To me, there's two ways to throw the football: you either drop back and throw it or you do it off the action game. So we're able to get into more action passes last week, created some more downfield throws. So you look at that and how it fits the run game this week.
"But at the end of the day, we're trying to play more players in the perimeter group. Last week was our first real attempt at that, so we'll see how this week shakes out with game-planning. But we need to spend a little more time on the passing game then we've had in the past, and we're doing that particularly in our meeting structure."
McCarthy's right: Rodgers threw the ball down the field more last week. He attempted 16 throws that traveled 10 or more yards in the air against the Giants, according to ESPN Stats & Information. He had tried more than 10 of those throws just once in the previous three games. However, Rodgers completed just four of them against the Giants for his lowest percentage on such throws this season.
Rodgers has been off-target on more throws -- short and long -- this season. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he has underthrown or overthrown a pass for an incompletion on 24 percent of his attempts this season compared to 17 percent from 2008-15.
Rodgers, for his part, accepted a share of the blame.
"You catch the ball, you throw it a little more accurately and don't throw it away as much," he said. "Maybe I should start taking some more sacks. No, you know what? I've got to be more accurate, and I will. We've got to make the most of the opportunities on 50-50 balls and the balls we should catch and complete."
It's one reason the Packers rank just 27th in passing yards heading into Sunday's game against the Cowboys, who have seen the best of Rodgers over the years. He has thrown 205 career passes against the Cowboys, including playoffs, and doesn't have an interception. He has 10 touchdowns and a 67.3 completion percentage.
"He's obviously one of the elite players in the game and to me a Hall of Fame quarterback," Garrett said. "So we watch the tape, we don't really look at the numbers as much as other people, and he's just an outstanding player."